Which Resolution Do We Need? A Decision Checklist for Strata and Community Corporations

Three resolutions, and the one test everyone gets backwards

Every decision a strata or community corporation makes is an ordinary, special or unanimous resolution. Get the type wrong and the decision is open to challenge, however sensible it was. This article is the checklist: which decisions need which resolution, under the Strata Titles Act 1988 and the Community Titles Act 1996.

Start with the test, because it is counter-intuitive. A special resolution is not a "75% in favour" vote. It is a votes-against test. The resolution passes unless the votes cast against it exceed 25% of every vote in the group — counted as if every owner had turned up and was entitled to vote. Abstentions do not count against it. Neither do absences.

A unanimous resolution works the same way: it is a special resolution passed without a single dissenting vote. It does not require every owner to attend and vote in favour. It requires that nobody votes against. An owner who stays home has not blocked it.

Both special and unanimous resolutions need at least 14 days' written notice setting out the text of the resolution. Miss that and the vote is worthless no matter how the numbers fall.

Small schemes work differently

In a three-unit strata corporation where each owner has one vote, a special resolution passes if no more than one vote is cast against it. The same rule applies to three-lot community schemes under Section 88 of the Community Titles Act.

In a two-lot scheme, one vote against defeats a special resolution. But it passes if one owner votes in favour and the other stays home, abstains, or is unfinancial and cannot vote. That is not a drafting accident — it is the arithmetic of a votes-against test, and it catches people.

Strata corporations: the matrix

Ordinary resolution — the default

Unless the Act or the Articles say otherwise, decisions in general meeting are made by ordinary resolution: a simple majority of the votes of unit holders present and voting (Section 34(8)). No notice of the specific motion is required beyond the ordinary meeting notice and agenda.

That covers the great majority of business — adopting the budget, levying contributions on the standard unit-entitlement basis, appointing and removing officers, appointing and removing the management committee, engaging or dismissing a body corporate manager, permitting contributions by instalment, and delegating functions to a manager.

Special resolution

• Adopting, revoking or varying the Articles in substitution for Schedule 3 (Section 19(2)). The resolution has no effect until a certified copy is lodged with the Registrar-General.
• Authorising prescribed work — the erection, alteration, demolition or removal of a building or structure, or an alteration to the external appearance of a building or structure (Section 29(1)(b)). This is the pergola, the air conditioner on the external wall, the new front door, the shed.
• Requiring the corporation to insure against a liability beyond those the Act and the regulations already mandate (Section 31(3)(a)).

Two exceptions to the Section 29 rule are worth knowing. Where every unit in the scheme is non-residential, the Articles can authorise prescribed work instead of a special resolution. And Section 29(1a) carves out work done in compliance with a direction under the Housing Improvement Act 1940, and work on a unit in a two-unit scheme where the work is approved development under the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016.

Unanimous resolution

• Amending a deposited strata plan (Section 12(2)(a)).
• Amalgamating adjacent sites — each corporation must pass one (Section 16(2)(b)).
• Acquiring, dealing with or disposing of real property (Section 26(3)).
• Granting a unit holder an exclusive right to occupy part of the common property for a specified period (Section 26(4)).
• Distributing the surplus from the sale of the corporation's real property among unit holders (Section 26(6)).
• Levying contributions on any basis other than unit entitlement — for example, equal shares (Section 27(3)(b)). This is the one that comes up most often, usually in the context of a special levy.
• Adopting entitlement-weighted voting in a wholly non-residential scheme (Section 34(2)).
• Authorising a lease or licence over part of a unit, in a residential scheme, where the grantee is not another unit holder (Section 44(2)(b)(ii)). No authorisation is needed to lease a whole unit.

Community corporations: the matrix

The framework is parallel, the section numbers are not, and the community regime pushes more decisions through the regulations.

Special resolution

• Varying the by-laws (Sections 12(2) and 39(1)) — except where the variation changes the number of votes per lot, which needs a unanimous resolution.
• Allowing an owner with exclusive use of part of the common property to build on it, install a fixture, or alter it (Section 36(4)).
• Varying or terminating a development contract (Section 50(2)).
• Erecting a building on, or improving, the common property — beyond establishing and maintaining lawns and gardens (Section 75(3)).
• Removing the presiding officer, treasurer or secretary from office (Section 76(7)(h)).
• In a community strata scheme, authorising the erection, alteration, demolition or removal of a building, or changes to its external appearance (Section 102(1)) — the community equivalent of Section 29.
• Revoking or varying a decision that originally required a special resolution (Section 89(2)).
• Acquiring property other than an interest in land, worth less than $5,000 (Section 112(3)(b) and the regulations).
• Disposing of excess money in the administrative or sinking fund, by transfer between funds or distribution to owners (Section 117).

Unanimous resolution

• Applying to amend the schedule of lot entitlements (Section 21(3)).
• Amending the scheme description (Section 31).
• Applying to amend a deposited community plan, where the corporation is the applicant (Section 52(2)).
• Amalgamating with another community plan (Section 60).
• Using the common property or corporation property to produce income (Section 75(4)(c)).
• Varying the number of votes per lot prescribed by the by-laws (Section 87(2)).
• Revoking or varying a decision that originally required a unanimous resolution (Section 89(1)).
• Applying insurance money to anything other than making good the loss (Section 105).
• Granting an easement over the common property, or consenting to the extinguishment of one (Section 110(1)).
• Granting a right to occupy the common property to the exclusion of other owners (Section 111(1)).
• Acquiring a freehold or leasehold interest in land (Section 112(3)(a)), and acquiring other property worth $5,000 or more (Section 112(3)(b) and the regulations).
• Determining contributions on any basis other than lot entitlement (Section 114(3)).

The expenditure tiers

Section 119 caps what a community corporation can spend without a resolution of the right weight. Regulation 21 of the Community Titles Regulations 2011 sets the thresholds by reference to the number of lots in the scheme, so they scale with the size of the group:

• Ordinary resolution — expenditure of less than $2,000 multiplied by the number of lots. In a 20-lot scheme, that is anything under $40,000.
• Special resolution — expenditure at or above that figure, where either the amount is less than $5,000 multiplied by the number of lots, or the expenditure is reasonably required for completing works required by a council (or a body established by councils) or a public authority, or works required in connection with or as a consequence of such works.
• Unanimous resolution — expenditure at or above $5,000 multiplied by the number of lots, unless it falls into the council or public authority category above.

That middle limb is the important one, and it is recent. Where a council or a public authority has required the work — a rectification notice, a fire-safety order, flammable cladding removal — a special resolution is enough no matter how large the bill. The unanimous threshold does not bite. Before that amendment, a single owner could block compliance with a lawful notice by staying silent, and groups facing cladding rectification found themselves unable to act.

If your corporation has received a notice from a council or a public authority, do not assume you need unanimity. You almost certainly do not.

Note also that the community management committee cannot fix or change the levies. Section 114(2) reserves that to the corporation in general meeting, by ordinary resolution.

What the management committee can never do

In both regimes the rule is the same and it is absolute. A management committee has no power to do anything for which the Act or the Articles or by-laws require a special or unanimous resolution (Strata Titles Act Section 35(3); Community Titles Act Section 92(4)).

A committee resolution approving a pergola is not an approval. A committee resolution varying the Articles is not a variation. These go to a general meeting, with the text of the resolution in the notice at least fourteen days out. See How to Run a Strata Meeting for the notice and agenda mechanics.

When you don't get the numbers

Both Acts provide a safety valve, and few owners know it exists.

Where a unanimous resolution is required and the vote falls short but reaches the threshold for a special resolution, a person who voted in favour may apply to the Magistrates Court or the Supreme Court to have the resolution declared sufficient to authorise the act proposed. If the court so orders, the resolution is taken to have been passed as a unanimous resolution (Strata Titles Act Section 46).

The community equivalent (Section 149) goes further: it covers both the unanimous-to-special gap and the special-to-ordinary gap, and the application goes to the Magistrates Court or the District Court.

In both cases, notice of the application must be served on everyone who was entitled to vote and did not vote in favour. This is the mechanism for the single obstructive owner who will not engage — but it is a court application, with the cost and delay that implies. Use it when persuasion has failed, not as a first move.

Your Articles and by-laws can add to this list

Everything above comes from the Acts and the regulations. Your corporation's Articles (strata) or by-laws (community) can reserve further decisions to a special or unanimous resolution, and some do. The Acts set the floor, not the ceiling. Read your own rules before you assume an item is ordinary business.

Get in touch

If you are unsure which resolution a decision needs, ask before the notice goes out rather than after the vote. Getting the resolution type wrong is one of the few strata mistakes that cannot be fixed by goodwill afterwards. Acacia Collective manages strata and community title groups across South Australia.

Call us on 1300 792 255 or email hello@acaciacollective.com.au.

This article is a practical reference, not legal advice. For a specific question about your corporation, consult a solicitor.